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Abstract

We describe the performance of a reflective pulse-shaper based on a Micro-ElectroMechanical System (MEMS) linear mirror array. It represents a substantial upgrade of a preceding release [Opt. Lett. 35, 3102 (2010)] as it allows simultaneous piston and tilt mirror motion, allowing both phase- and binary amplitude-shaping with no wavelength restriction. Moreover, we show how the combination of in-axis and tilt movement can be used for active correction of spatial chirp.

Figures (4)

(Media 1) Spectral amplitude modulation. First column: white-light interferometry profile of the MEMS device region addressed. The horizontal dashed lines indicate the deflected (D) and undeflected (U) mirrors in the three different cases corresponding to the three rows: 9 (first row), 18 (second row), and 24 (third row) mirrors in the deflected state. The vertical arrows indicate the position of the two nonworking mirrors. Second column: output beam profile measured for the different MEMS actuation conditions. Third and fourth column: spectral intensity acquired for the deflected and undeflected beam, respectively. The two red arrows indicate the spectral position of the two nonworking mirrors.

Time-domain modulation by amplitude shaping. Spectra recorded for the deflected beams when every even (A) or odd (B) mirror is tilted. (C) Typical XFROG resulting from applying an alternating tilted/untilted mirror pattern. In the symbolic mirrors representations in the top right corners of the plots, the blue elements correspond to the observed beam portion in the plots.

Interference between two isolated spectral portions. Temporal cross-correlation traces revealing the effect of interferences between two isolated spectral portions for the undeflected (A) and the deflected (B) beam for a relative phase-shift Δϕ of 0 (solid line) and π (dashed line). The blue elements in the symbolic representation indicate the two mirrors spectrally associated to the two interfering beam components. The theoretical temporal shaping-window allowed by the the setup is superimposed as a reference (dotted-dash line).

Spatial chirp control. First row: spatial distribution along the horizontal axis of the pulse frequencies associated to three different angular MEMS patterns. Second row: corresponding spectrally integrated intensity. (A) tilt angle linearly increasing as a function of wavelength; (B) no tilting; (C) tilt angle linearly decreasing as a function of wavelength. The stripes out of the trend at 405 and 411 nm are due to the non-working mirrors, indicated by the red arrows in Fig. 1.